The Catharsis of Oedipus

                                the agony! Iam agony-

where am I going? where on Earth?

where does all this agony hurl me? 

where’s my voice?-

winging, swept away on a dark tide-

My destiny, my dark power, what a leap you made! (1443-1448).

Analysis: 

Oedipus tone has a sense of hopelessness and curiosity because he asks where and why he is this suffering happening to him. When the text says “the dark power” they mean that Oedipus is experiencing his downfall which is like his hell for him, his royalty was just overall his darkness for him, his family, and the city. His destiny was darkness all along since the day he was born. Also the repetition of the word, “agony” means extreme physical or mental suffering, and this is leading to the end of his power and his destiny and his life.  He asks the chorus what are the next steps after he gouges his eyes out. He is still confused to what he should do next he already feels horrible and angry about all of this. During the discovery, all of his emotions are jumping everywhere from one place to another. 

Reader Response: 

At this point I feel the same way as Oedipus, specifically wondering what his next steps after he gouged his eyes out with his mother’s brooch. Oedipus feels guilty in a way that all he really wants to do is run away from the mess or even more dreadful to kill himself to escape from this reality. I feel really sympathetic for the blind Oedipus because he’s really confused on what to do next. He doesn’t know how to really control his emotions so he panicked when he found out when his mother died as well as the whole truth. In my opinion, I think another alternative for an ending is the idea of not giving up on hope. If Oedipus was strong enough psychologically he would be able to look back and fix his mistakes. However, it would be difficult for him to change and fix everything in a small period of time. I think all Oedipus feels is shame because he feels like he made Thebes disappointed and now the most hateful person in the city. I certainly wouldn’t want to be in his shoes right now. In this audio I will portray on how I think Oedipus tone is like, his reactions. 

Here is the link to the audio. Right click the link and click "go to address"   

file:///Users/Annisaa/Desktop/Oedipus%20Voice-2.m4a